'Precis Containing Information in regard to the First Connection of the Hon'ble East India Company with Turkish Arabia, as far as the Same Can Be Traced from the Records of the Bombay Government, together with the Names of the Several British Residents and Political Agents Who Have Been Stationed at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Bussorah [Basra] between A.D. 1646 and 1846, accompanied by Other Information' [‎54v] (110/226)

78 PRECIS OF INFORMATION REGARDING CONNECTION OF E. I. COMPY.
Hon'ble Company know me well, and they shall find me if my abilities equal my inte
grity, and my constitution enables me, to prosecute my views and wishes, a servant
worthy of their applause, attention, and support."
180. During the year 1797 Mr. Manesty addressed several
letters to Government, in which he stated that the most perfect
cordiality existed between himself and the Mussaleem During the eighteenth century this was the third most powerful official in Ottoman Iraq (after the Pasha and the Kiya). The title was given specifically to the Governor of Basra. of Bussorah, and
that the Pacha had from time to time communicated to him throug-h
the Mussaleem During the eighteenth century this was the third most powerful official in Ottoman Iraq (after the Pasha and the Kiya). The title was given specifically to the Governor of Basra. his desire that the most perfect friendship should exist
between his Government and the Hon^ble Company. In a letter, dated
the 24th May 1798, Mr. Manesty communicated the following- intelli
gence in regard to the then state of affairs at Bussorah and in the
Bagdad Pachalic :—
" I am really happy in communicating to Government information that the affairs of
the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. are at present in a most prosperous state, and that I have not the smallest
doubt of their very long continuing so. The conduct of the Turkish Government in
all its departments towards the factory An East India Company trading post. and myself is friendly, handsome, and satisfactory
on the highest degree. My inffuence with it is as extensive as lean myself desire. My
friendship a nd influence with all the neighbouring Governors and Shaiks, and with the
distant Shaiks in the desert, enable me to command their services on all occasions, and
the general inhabitants of the country are devoted to my wishes. In short, Hon'ble Sir,
I have now attained the desirable object of those politic and prudential measures which
have invariably characterized my public conduct as British Resident at Bussorah. The
honor, the credit, the respectability, and the influence are completely and fir ml y estab
lished, and the nation and the Hon'ble Company now in unequivocal enjoyment of all the
advantages derivable from the possession of this valuable subordinate, advantages which
I flatter myself I shall be enabled to preserve to them by the future countenance and
support of Government. I have the honor very respectfully to inform you that the Pacha
has been forced by the recent predatory incursions of the Wahabee Arabs, which have
extended even to the banks of the Euphrates and the vicinity of Hella on that river,
which town is within 50 miles of Bagdad, to determine to march a large army in the
commencement of the ensuing winter into the territories of the Wahabee Shaik and
to attempt the reduction of the town of Draeeah, his capital, and the destruction of
her power and government. This warfare necessarily renders the passage of travellers
across the desert extremely dangerous and precarious, but I encourage a hope that the
messengers employed by me, between Bussorah and Aleppo, will continue to experience
the beneficial effects of the attachment to me of the different Arab tribes, who inhabit
the desert which has so long given security to the conveyance through it of the
national correspondence between Europe and India."
181. On the 5th July 1798, the Hon'ble the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs.
appointed Mr. Harford Jones (then in England), formerly ''Joint
Factor" at Bussorah, " Resident at the Court of Pacha of Bagdad," at
which place Mr. Jones arrived on the 24th of the following month, and
assumed charge of that appointment. This appointment was made by
the Hon'ble Court in supersession of a temporary arrangement made a
short time previously by Mr. Manesty of sending a Mr. Reinaud to
Bagdad, as Agent on behalf of the Hon'ble Company, and had in view
amongst other objects the facilitating the transmission of news to, and
from, India, and of watching the proceedings of French emissaries who
were occasionally proceeding to, and from, India, through the Bagdad
Paehalic, with the view as was supposed of communicating intelligence
to General Buonaparte, who it was believed projected an invasion of
India via Egypt and the Red Sea.
182. About the time this appointment was made, war was declared
between Turkey and France, and on the 8th October 1798, a messenger